Prayer's place in sports remains controversial topic

The place of prayer in sports remains a controversial topicFive years after the highest court weighs in, issue is far from settled

NANCY ARMOUR, Associated Press

Published 6:30 am, Sunday, December 11, 2005

There are signs of faith and prayer everywhere you look in sports these days.

The huddle of players kneeling in prayer on the field after every NFL game. Basketball players making the sign of the cross before shooting a free throw. Fingers pointed toward the sky after home runs and touchdowns. Signs for chapel services in baseball clubhouses. Bible study and Christian fellowship groups at high school and college campuses across the country.

"I don't think a relationship with the Lord only occurs in church or only in your own private lives," says Washington basketball coach Lorenzo Romar. "Every moment you walk, you want to live in such a manner that you are acknowledging God's presence. You're trying to be his advocate, his ambassador. I don't think we turn it on and off."

But not everyone is comfortable inviting God into the game. Five years after the Supreme Court reaffirmed a ban on officially sponsored prayer in public schools with a ruling that said students couldn't lead crowds in prayer before football games, the question of who can pray together — and how — is far from settled.

A New Jersey high school football coach filed suit against his district two weeks ago, asking for the right to pray with his team before games. Marcus Borden had prayed with his East Brunswick players for years until some parents complained this fall and he was ordered to stop.

The family of a former New Mexico State football player plans to file a federal suit, claiming he was discriminated against because he's Muslim. MuAmmar Ali says he was criticized for reciting a prayer from the Quran instead of the "Our Father" the rest of the team was saying after practice, and was questioned about al-Qaida.

Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry was told last year to remove a banner from the locker room that displayed the "Competitor's Creed," including the lines, "I am a Christian first and last ... I am a member of Team Jesus Christ."

"A lot of these issues are manifestations of things that are good. Mainly, that we have pluralism," says Richard Garnett, a professor of constitutional law at Notre Dame. "We are committed to two different values, government neutrality and the freedom of speech. I wouldn't want to give up one for the other."

Once size doesn't fit all

But trying to find a middle ground is difficult, and sometimes painful.

Mustafa Ali, MuAmmar Ali's father, used to think society could use more prayer in public arenas. He and some of his co-workers have moments of prayer at work, and neither he nor his son objected when the Aggies ended practice with a prayer. But MuAmmar says he was criticized when he and two other Muslim players held their hands up to their faces and recited the opening chapter of the Quran.

MuAmmar Ali says coach Hal Mumme later called him into his office to ask about al-Qaida. Ali, the team's leading rusher last year, lost his starting job after the season opener and was later dismissed from the team.

A law firm hired by New Mexico State to investigate a grievance filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on Ali's behalf said it found no evidence of religious discrimination. But Ali's father says the family plans to pursue its complaint in a federal suit. A call to New Mexico State was not immediately returned.

"I think prayer is good. I'm actually for more of it, to be honest," Mustafa Ali says. "But I also think in these situations, the person should be able to pray how they want to pray. When you have a prayer that is a set prayer, then you alienate others and make them feel uncomfortable. It isn't as simple as people think it is."

Faith goes to school

The separation of church and state doesn't prevent public school students from praying while they're at school or participating in school-sponsored activities such as athletics. Equal-access laws have cleared the way for student-led religious groups, as long as they're voluntary.

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes has groups at 8,000 junior high schools, high schools and colleges throughout the country, reaching 350,000 student-athletes, says Dan Britton, FCA's senior vice president of ministry programs. Eighty percent of the groups are in high schools.

Problems arise when an authority figure such as a coach, or the school itself, is involved. In a 2000 ruling that banned students from leading pregame prayers over loudspeakers, the Supreme Court said the Santa Fe, Texas, school district was giving the impression of sponsorship. Students were using school equipment and were under the direction of a faculty member.

"The degree of school involvement makes it clear that the pregame prayers bear the imprint of the state and thus put school-age children who objected in an untenable position," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote.

"I don't know how a student says no," says Anthony Griffin, the attorney who represented the two families who brought the Santa Fe case. "If I'm an athlete and I want to play football, why should I be put in a position of saying, 'Coach, I don't want to do this.' Then you're not a team player.

"In team sports there's tremendous pressure to conform," Griffin says. "Having the coach lead the prayer session or encourage the prayer session is nothing more than coercion."

But the Santa Fe decision hasn't stopped coaches from praying with their teams. Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, says more than half of the nation's high school football coaches engage in some form of team prayer.

The battle now is to define that fine line between participating and proselytizing.

Borden, the East Brunswick (N.J.) High School coach, resigned Oct. 7 after being told he couldn't pray with his players or even be present at their pregame prayers. He returned a week later after hiring a lawyer.

Keeping it voluntary

Romar's players have voluntary Bible study, and the coach prays with them before games. But both are done at the players' initiative, Romar says.

He didn't even know about the pregame prayers at first.

"I stumbled across it because I went out of the locker room quicker than usual (one night)," Romar says. "I said if that's the case, I want to be a part of it."

And if somebody doesn't want to participate?

"Perfectly fine," Romar says. "That's why it's not mandatory."

While teams such as Romar's seem to have found a balance, the struggle for others will continue regardless of how many lawsuits or complaints are filed. The separation of church and state is a bedrock of American society, but so, too, is the presence of faith. This is a country where "In God We Trust" is printed on coins and dollar bills.

"We've always had this middle ground between established church and an entirely secular public life," says Garnett, the Notre Dame law professor. "The only way to really eliminate it is for one side to completely eradicate the other, and I wouldn't want that to happen.